Weird Wiltshire - Ghosts

Ghosts - Latest News

Ghosts news, views, gallery and archive brought to you by Weird Wiltshire

Introduction
Latest News
News Archive
Longleat House
Sign of an Angel
Bewley Court
Red Lion
Westbury Pool
Maud Cunnington
Wardour Castle
Manor House Hotel
Devizes Castle
Kings Arms
Malmesbury Abbey
Lacock Abbey
Avebury Manor
Littlecote Manor
Lydiard House
Gallery
Postcards
Wallpaper
Links

11th November 2005
Is this the ghost of Lady Isabella?

WHAT is thought to be the ghost of a 12th century damsel, bricked up in a wall at Devizes Castle by her angry father, has appeared in a photograph taken by Land Registry surveyor Mike Crawshaw.

Mr Crawshaw visited Moat Cottage, part of the 19th century mansion built on the ruins of the medieval castle, to investigate a disputed access way.

He told the Gazette: 'I took ten or 12 pictures of the steps leading to Moat Cottage but it was only when I viewed them later on that I noticed this shape on just one of the photographs.'

'My colleagues and I did various experiments to make sure that I hadn't just caught the camera strap or something like that, but the photograph is genuine. It hasn't been tampered with in any way.'

Mr Crawshaw logged on to Google and found his way to Newsquest Wiltshire¹s Weird Wiltshire site.

He said: 'The first thing I came up with was this story about a young girl who had been bricked up in the Castle. It's an extraordinary story, but what is more extraordinary is how I went straight to it.'

The victim in question is called Lady Isabella, and may be Isabella of Valois, Richard II's second queen, whom he married when she was just nine years old.

The story is told that Lady Isabella developed a relationship with one of the boys of the town and, though she was locked in her room, she still managed to escape to meet her lover.

Her father grew so exasperated, he had her walled up in a basement room.

Dennis Clements, who owns Moat Cottage, and has known the castle for over 40 years, saidd there have been sightings of Lady Isabella in the area.

He said: 'We have had all sorts of strange happenings there. The ghost of the lady has been seen there for years and years. She seems to appear when there has been any kind of disturbance though there is no sort of rule or regulation about it.'

Mr Clements had two experts in supernatural phenomena stay with him and they told him that a ley line, a line of spiritual force, runs from Glastonbury through the cottage.

Castle's spooky legend
Isabella is a common name in the 12th century and there is no firm evidence that the Isabella of Devizes Castle is the queen of Richard II.

What is clear is that the Lady Isabella of Devizes Castle, the daughter of the Norman overlord, was having a relationship with one of the local boys, who may well have been a Saxon, to the fury of her father and his Norman colleagues.

She was forbidden to see the boy and confined within the castle, but she would steal away from the security of the stronghold to continue meeting him.

When her escapades were discovered, her father resorted to locking Isabella in her room. After finding that even this did not stop her, he took the drastic measure of bricking her up in a basement room and she died entombed.

23rd December 2004
Is there anyone there?

DARKEST midwinter, when the nights stretch out and the daylight hours are short, is a traditional time for sitting around a blazing fire and sharing a tale or two about ghosts and hauntings.

Wiltshire is a county with a wealth of ancient houses and there are local ghost stories aplenty to be found.

As mists wreathe around the bare trees, as the shadows fall behind the standing stones and darkness creeps into the corners of our homes, it is easy to imagine the ghosts of the dead might linger, perhaps searching for some light, warmth and company.

Many people enjoy the spooky frisson of ghost stories but three local people have taken the fascination with the spirit world one step further.

Ghost hunters Maxine Vine, Tom Dimakopoulos and Gail Kitson are planning a comprehensive survey of spiritual activity in two ancient Wiltshire pubs, the Red Lion in Avebury and the White Hart Hotel in Calne.

While the haunting of the Red Lion has been the matter for debate and speculation for some years, the ghost hunters are confident they will also uncover some secrets in the White Hart.

Ms Vine, self styled white witch, high priestess and paranormal investigator, said they would write up a full report for each investigation, as well as providing pictures and poetry.

'We felt called to seek the spirits at these places,' said Ms Vine.

The three ghost hunters call themselves the Spirit Seekers and said they use a range of methods to detect any ghostly activities.

Ms Vine and Ms Kitson use trances and visions, clairvoyance, dowsing and psychometry trying to pick up stories in the mind from objects to uncover any paranormal activity.

The Spirit Seekers also make recordings of the silence to see if anything can be discovered as in a similar scene in the movie Sixth Sense? 'We tape record the silence and then use a PC to speed up and slow down the recording to see if anything can be heard,' said Mr Dimakopoulos.

They will also use a digital camera to detect the presence of orbs, which are round, white manifestations of spirit activity, as well as researching the history of a building.

Ms Kitson will also allow the spirits to dictate notes for poems, which she hopes will help people move forward in life and not make the same mistakes as their predecessors.

'Many pubs are very old buildings and Wiltshire has many haunted pubs,' said Ms Vine.

'And if we find any evidence of ghosts, it's sure to attract more people to the pubs and the area- everyone wants to go to a haunted place, to find out what they might see.'

Ms Kitson added: 'I don't find it scary. It's true, the spirits do not like being messed about with, but we are very careful. I certainly wouldn't encourage people to play around with ouija boards.'

The Red Lion in Avebury has a long history of hauntings and television documentary makers descended on the pub two years ago to make a film about it.

The pub is reputed to have a ghost called Florrie who was murdered by her husband in the 17th century.

More recently, Gazette photographer John Myers took a picture of a ghostly reflection in a mirror.

Kevin Graham, landlord of the White Hart in Calne said: 'No-one has tapped me on the shoulder and said I'm a ghost. I don't believe in them myself.

'Enthusiasts have come here and they reckon they have found things like orbs. They have said to me there are many ghosts but I am a sceptic.'

October 25th 2004
Searching for an apparition?

According to a new book, you won't need to go far Wiltshire is a hot spot for spooks.
By KEVIN SHOESMITH.

GHOSTHUNTERS need look no further than their own doorstep this Halloween. According to the author of a new book, Swindon is a hotspot for paranormal goings-on.

Haunted Places of Wiltshire, published by Countryside Books, lists sites around the county that have witnessed spooky sightings.

And Swindon along with its surrounding villages appears to have its fair share of eerie stories that will send a shiver down your spine.

Take the tale of the Wroughton ghost. For generations, it's been said that a lone figure stands guard around a yew tree in the churchyard of St John The Baptist and St Helen church.

According to writer Rupert Matthews, opinions are divided as to the ghoul's identity.

One theory holds that it is the ghost of a man who committed suicide by hanging himself from its branches.

Another is that it's the phantom of a woman buried in the churchyard, who died with a guilty secret. Canon Michael Johnson reckons the tale originated in the school playground.

'Schoolchildren have used this one to scare each other for generations,' he said. 'They say that if you run around the tree 13 times on the stroke of midnight you will see the figure.'

Although he dismisses the tale as myth, Canon Johnson advised a note of caution.

He said: 'There is probably nothing in it, but it would be foolish to dabble in things that we do not know much about. Ouija boards and the like can really mess people up. People should be cautious.'

Mr Matthews also includes Chiseldon in his book.

Paranormal activity is supposed to centre around a path connecting Holy Cross church and the quaint village of Hodson.

But the Evening Advertiser drew a blank when it tried to find out more from villagers.

Mike Cox, 68, of Butts Road, was born in the village and had never heard of the story. He said: 'My grandfather was 94 and he lived in the village all his life he never told me about a village ghost.

'But I wouldn't be surprised if the village did have a ghost. It's a very old place with the ancient Ridgeway track, which goes back to Roman times, running through it.'

Lydiard House also gets a mention.

The stately home with its sweeping grounds landscaped in the 18th century is said to contain the spirit of Sir John St John. The baronet's life was marked by tragedy. A staunch Royalist, he was reduced to ruin by the vengeful Parliament after the Civil War.

Three of his sons were killed in the heat of battle.

Former warden of the house, Joyce Ingram, is quoted in the book as saying: 'We can always tell when he is about. The temperature drops dramatically and there is this distinctive, sweet smell.'

And not surprisingly, the ancient stone circle at Avebury is said in the book to be one of the most haunted areas of the county. Spectres include small figures which are sometimes mistaken as children in fancy dress. They appear to dance about, as the book says, 'to some silent and long forgotten tune.'

Mr Matthews said: 'Researching Swindon was a doddle the place is crawling with ghosts.'

The book is available from all bookshops priced £7.95.

07 October 2004
Is this a ghost?

THERE was a ghoulish shock in store for Gazette cameraman John Myers when he downloaded photographs taken during a ghost hunt at the famously haunted Red Lion pub in Avebury.

One of his photographs taken of a mirror in the pub restaurant shows a gruesome reflection of a bald, pale faced man streaked with blood.

The photographer was unable to explain how his digital Nikon camera had captured the reflection when there was no-one even faintly resembling the man in the building.

Mr Myers had gone to the Red Lion on Saturday to cover a vigil by a group of supernatural investigators. He remained with them for some time and while in the pub restaurant, where the lights were turned off, he took random pictures.

The cameraman said: "I was just taking random shots around the room to see if I could pick up any orbs or anything." The "orbs" he was referring to are little balls of light occasionally spotted by ghost hunters and sometimes seen and photographed near crop circles.

He didn't get around to downloading his photographs until two days later when he made the gruesome discovery of the face. Pub landlord Richard Bounds' first reaction to the photograph was: "Bloody hell."

Mr Bounds said: "There was a guy murdered here hundreds of years ago apparently, the original owner. "It's said that he hid peasants in the cellars but then double crossed them. He was murdered so perhaps it's him." Mr Bounds said there had been a number of recent spooky happenings in the pub included one his staff feeling somebody touch her. "This happened two or three weeks ago and she was scared rigid," said the licensee.

He said he had never seen anything like the Gazette picture before and added: "It's very bizarre." Mr Myers was not the only one to pick up unexplained sightings during the vigil by the Swindon-based group, Paranormal Site Investigators.

Organiser Dave Wood said: "Several of us saw strange lights and we did catch some orbs of light on our cameras. Three or four of us picked up the presence of a child or children in one of the upstairs bedrooms and the staff said there had been reports of ghosts of children seen in this bedroom before."

In the cellar, said Mr Wood, some of the psychic investigators taking part in the vigil picked up the presence of a man acting violently with a knife. He said: "We discovered subsequently from talking to the staff that a man had been murdered in the cellar with a knife several hundred years ago."

While one group was in the cellar a bottle-top remover that had been fixed to the bar on the ground floor was hurled down the stairs. "That brought a couple of blood-curdling screams from our group," said Mr Wood.

One spook who did not put in an appearance for the investigators was the pub's most famous ghost of all, Florrie. She is said to be the ghost of a woman murdered by her soldier husband when he returned home from the Civil War and found she had been unfaithful.

When former Blue Peter presenter Yvett Fielding went to the pub to film an episode of the TV series Most Haunted she ran from one of the rooms screaming after "something" touched her hair.

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Postcards I Wallpaper I Site Map I This is Wiltshire I Newsquest Digital Media Services I Other This is sites
Home I Crop Circles I Silbury Hill I Stones I UFOs I White Horses I Ghosts I Miscellaneous I